New Eyes

I was able to wrestle myself out of bed at 5:30am despite feeling extra sleepy and fairly stiff. But I expected it. Mindy was kind enough to rub my shoulder in the middle of night easing the dull pain that woke me a time or two. Also, a severe thunderstorm rolled through prompting the kids to join us in bed through the night. It rained harder than it has in an awfully long time. After the storm passed, Mindy coaxed the kids back to their own beds. We were getting the remnants of hurricane Erin. And word has it that we’re gonna get up to 3 more inches of rain throughout the day. We haven’t had that kind of rain all season. I exercised and then walked Ykraps. The rain had stopped by the time he and I were out for our walk. I was looking very forward to a hot cup of coffee. After some coffee, internet, and meditation I was ready to make food. I packed tuna fish and some leftover tomato salad. There was no need whatsoever to water flowers. God took care of that. For that reason alone, I found myself ready for work very early. However, my new eye glasses were in and I committed to stopping by and picking them up on my way to work. I drove up Riverside to Lane Avenue to catch 315N. I arrived at Riverview Eye Care 10 minutes early. The door was open and a young lady, although unfamiliar to me, was waiting for me. She quickly fitted me to my new lenses and began trying to repair my old pair. She found the old screw stripped and figured it would take a while longer to fix. She asked if I could leave them there. I agreed and made arrangements to tentatively pick them up when my new contacts arrive in a couple of days. Cool! Off to work. I arrived at work by 8:30am. I was dragging butt all morning long. I even tinkered with the idea of going home to get some sleep. In the end, however, I didn’t. I remembered that Ashley was there watching the kids. I chose instead to tough it out. By the time 12:45pm rolled around I felt even more tired. I wondered where my running energy would come from. It came from the gut, because I certainly had nothing left in the tank. All that physical work over the weekend kicked my ass. But I’ve been there a time or two in the past. Usually, during and after my run, I get a second wind. Today was no different. After about three miles my legs loosened and the fatigue seemed to fade. But the fact that it was so warm and humid didn’t help much. The anticipated heavy rain had yet to arrive so the temperatures soared to near 90 mixed with awfully high humidity. My running shorts were so wet they were dripping as if I had jumped in a lake. I was back at my desk by 2pm enjoying my packed lunch. It’s never tasted better. I felt one hundred times better than I did this AM - still a little achy and tired, however, but far more peppy & alert. Soon it was 5:10pm and time to head home. I called Mindy as I drove that way. She said that it poured extremely hard this afternoon. In fact, it began raining all over Central Ohio around 3pm. The pond was swollen as I drove by and pulled up in the drive. I was reminded that I needed still to take the last trailer load of weeping willow switches to dad’s wood pile. But due to the rain, that’d have to wait. Mindy was tidying up the house after Ashley left with Olivia. The truth is, the house is always messy when we return. I couldn’t deal with daily childcare in the home. As it was, I couldn’t focus on anything until the mess was straightened up. That’s just my nature. Truthfully, Mindy was toiling with dinner but all I could think about was the mess. It made me sleepy. I did my best to remain mum about it. After all, Mindy didn’t do it. I ate my dinner – two chili dogs and leftover au gratin potatoes. I helped clean up the dinner dishes then collapsed on the sofa. I was really tired now after filling my belly. Next thing I knew, it was 8pm and the kids were exiting the tub. I’ll bet I slept for an hour and one half. Wow! I was still very heavy headed, too. Mindy asked that I tuck in the children. I did. Returning downstairs I tuned into the preseason Monday Night Football game which featured a Super Bowl rematch. Mindy went to bed around 925pm and asked if I cared to join her. I opted out. Instead, I wanted to watch the game from the reading chair. I watched until the middle of the third quarter. I headed to bed just after 10pm. I was very sleepy, still.